


You're My Space Dyke

by scrappylittlegleek



Category: Mean Girls (2004), Mean Girls - Richmond/Benjamin/Fey
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Broadway, Bullying, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Eventual Fluff, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Mean Girls Quotes, space dyke
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-13
Updated: 2019-03-13
Packaged: 2019-11-17 14:04:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18099986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scrappylittlegleek/pseuds/scrappylittlegleek
Summary: The students of North Shore High have found interest in bullying Janis again. Unsurprisingly, they've been targeting her for her sexuality, which gets to her more than anything else. When Cady finds out, she wears a shirt that says SPACE DYKE to show Janis she supports her, and she isn't going anywhere.





	You're My Space Dyke

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by a headcanon slushies-n-scrunchies posted on Tumblr where Cady parades around Janis in a space dyke shirt after witnessing the harassment Janis has been facing.

Something was off. Cady couldn’t be sure what it was, but something was off with Janis. She was different, and not in a good way.

Cady wasn’t sure when it had started, or why it was happening, but something about Janis was off. Sometimes she was distant or zoned out, but this wasn’t it. Cady was used to Janis sometimes dissociating or getting so deep into her own thoughts she forgot about the world around her. But Janis never seemed to be present anymore. Even when she was there, she wasn’t really there.

There were times when Cady would catch her looking at her lap, fidgeting with a loose thread on her ripped jeans. It seemed normal enough until Cady started noticing the other little details. Like how her breathing would get heavy, and she’d unconsciously furrow her brows. When Cady would tap her on the shoulder, Janis would look up and plaster on a smile. She would brush it off as if it were nothing and insist she was fine. But there were always tears in her eyes, and the smile was always forced and pained.

There were a few instances where Cady had attempted to talk to her about it. But they were always unsuccessful.

She tried to make sure Janis knew she could tell her anything and she wouldn’t be scared away. She told her as often as she could she wouldn’t leave, and it seemed like Janis believed her. Janis would smile and nod and tell her she needed to stop worrying. She told her she was alright, and that nothing was going on. She would give a nervous chuckle and act as if it were nothing. But Cady could see her hands shaking and her bottom lip trembling as she painted herself with a false sense of contentment.

Eventually, Cady gave up on trying to get something out of her girlfriend, so she did the next best thing; she went to Damian.

Damian and Janis were practically connected at the hip. They knew anything and everything about each other. When Janis wasn’t with Cady, she was with him. Even when Janis _was_ with Cady, Damian tagged along with them half the time. They had formed their own little social circle, which although she tried to hide it, made Janis extremely happy. She’d never had a clique of her own before Cady showed up, but now she had the group of friends she’d always secretly wanted. The three were as close as they could possibly be; especially Janis and Damian. So it seemed only logical that Janis would tell Damian if she was hiding something.

But strangely enough, Damian hadn’t been told anything. However, he had noticed Janis’ change in behavior.

“Do you think Regina is getting to her again?” Cady had asked.

Damian had shaken his head and stroked his chin as if it were a beard. “No, when Regina starts bitching about her, normally Janis just bitches right back,” he had responded.

And it was true. Janis wasn’t one to go down without a fight. When Regina hurt her, she fought for revenge. Now, Janis didn’t seem to have the energy for that. So it couldn’t have been Regina bothering her again.

Cady had sighed and nodded as she reluctantly accepted Damian’s response. She was back to square one. All she wanted to do was help her girlfriend, and she couldn’t even do that.

However, Cady’s bullying theory hadn’t been as incorrect as she’d originally thought. Janis just wouldn’t tell Cady this-- she couldn’t.

Things had gotten so much worse. And it wasn’t just Regina anymore. It seemed like the whole school hated her.

She’d known there would always be people who made fun of her, she was okay with that. Janis had always drawn attention to herself, most of the time unintentionally. But she’d learned to not let it bother her. She normally didn’t care that the oversized jackets she wore that were covered with paintings big and small would get people to notice her in a not so positive manner. It didn’t bother her that people thought the way she’d shaved half her head was ugly. It didn’t phase her when people made mean comments on the way she looked or even her art for that matter. She’d even learned to ignore getting shoved or laughed at in the hallways because she knew those gestures-- as cruel as they may have seemed weren’t the end of the world.

However, what she couldn’t take was the constant, never-ending homophobia.

Maybe she should’ve expected this. She didn’t look feminine, to say the least. It wasn’t like she didn’t wear men's clothing to school every so often. Maybe she was asking for it. After all, she’d been through it before in middle school, shouldn’t she have learned something?

Janis knew she’d been lucky it had only been Regina bullying her for a few years, especially after the whole “I am a space alien and I have four butts,” incident. She knew it could have been a lot worse. She’d gotten lucky. Surprisingly, she’d only been called _Space Dyke_ for a few weeks by the rest of the school, until it was only Regina who tormented her in the halls and between classes. But even she’d seemed to forget the whole thing, including the nickname.

But then there was the burn book. And all of North Shore High seemed the remember the popular phrase “Janis is a space dyke,” which seemed to have risen from its burial spot in North Shore Middle. Ever since she’d become known as the predatory and weird lesbian. It was no longer simple teasing, it wasn’t even Regina’s constant tormenting that seemed to get to her. For once, Regina didn’t seem to be the only problem. Sure she was still sometimes very persistent, but she’d seemed to move on to other people. People who mattered.

This time it was everyone else. The entire school just seemed to hate her, and Janis couldn’t be sure why.

Janis had done her best to keep this from Cady. She didn’t want her to know, it was too humiliating. Cady, as awkward and socially set back as she was, was very popular. Deep down, Janis knew Cady wouldn’t leave her if she found out what was going on. She knew Cady wasn’t like that. Yet she couldn’t shake the feeling that Cady would start to think she was a freak like everyone else did if she came forward. So she suffered in silence, just like she always did.

Until one day Cady found Janis in the girl's bathroom after school, fixing her eyeliner. She had been crying.

Cady hovered in the doorway, unsure of what to do. She’d never seen Janis cry before. She wasn’t even sure Janis _could_ cry if she were being honest.

After a few more seconds of contemplation, she made her way over to Janis, who was so focused on applying her makeup she hadn’t even noticed Cady’s presence.

“Hey, are you okay?” Cady asked softly.

Shocked by the noise, Janis threw her eyeliner pencil up in the air and clumsily attempted to catch it. She ended up dropping it in the sink and sighing as she picked it up before wiping it off on her jacket.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Janis retorted, more sharply than she’d intended.

“You’ve been crying,” Cady stated. It wasn’t a question or concern, she just seemed to be pointing it out, as if it were another meaningless detail.

Janis nodded slowly. “Yeah…” she mumbled.

“Did something happen-- with Regina?”

Janis exhaled and shook her head.

“Then what is it?” Cady asked. She’d never seen Janis like this before. All she wanted to do was help even if she didn’t know how. She just wished Janis would work with her instead of pushing all her feelings down like she always did.

“It’s nothing.”

It was a lie. Cady knew this. Janis was a terrible liar. And she was even worse when it came to lying to Cady. She just couldn’t seem to keep anything from her no matter how badly she may have wanted to.

Normally, this wouldn’t have been a problem as she’d never had to hide something from Cady before. Except for this of course.

“Janis… what’s going on?” Cady asked, her voice filled with concern. “If it’s not Regina than what is it?”

Janis sighed and looked down at her shoes. Her doc martins, like the rest of her clothes, were covered in little doodles she’d drawn on throughout the course of the day as she progressively got more and more bored in class.

“It’s not Regina,” she said, her voice barely audible against the hum of the bathroom radiator. “It’s everyone.”

She looked up at Cady, tears filled her eyes once more. “I don’t know why I let those bitches get to me,” she scoffed and shook her head. She bit her lip and tried to force back a frown, but it worked to no avail.

“I mean-- I don’t normally care, you know this,” Janis continued, and Cady nodded. This was true, Janis wasn’t one to let teasing and name calling get the best of her. She’d even gotten offended when Cady had told her she _wasn’t_ in the burn book.

“But now it-- it’s everyone.”

“What do you mean?” Cady asked. Shouldn’t she have noticed if this was happening? She had four classes with Janis, how had she been so oblivious?

Janis sighed and rubbed the shaved part of her hair. “Remember how I used to get called a space dyke back in middle school?” She asked with a nervous chuckle.

Cady nodded. Janis had told her all about it, and it sounded awful.

“So that dumbass nickname is kinda back,” Janis confessed with a scoff. She tried to brush it off as if it were just an annoyance, but Cady could tell it was getting to her.

“And I mean, I kinda knew there were always going to be people who hated me for being gay and I was fine with that-- I just never thought it would be this many people,” Janis admitted. “And I normally wouldn’t give a crap, there’s just _so many_ of them.”

Cady sighed and nodded slowly as she absorbed every last one of Janis’ words. She couldn’t imagine how she must’ve felt. Cady had been lucky enough to have never been bullied, so it was hard for her to empathize with Janis, who didn’t share the same luxury. But even if she was unable to feel the same way as Janis, she did feel terrible for her girlfriend, and she was ready to do anything in her power to make her feel better.

So the next morning she strolled up to Janis in homeroom and tapped her on the shoulder. She flashed her a large smile which made Janis raise a questioning eyebrow.

“Oh my God Caddie, what did you do?” She asked nervously.

“Nothing,” Cady said with a chuckle as she went to unbutton her flannel.

Janis’ eyes widened as she realized what Cady was doing, and she instantly grabbed ahold of her hand to stop her.

“Dude, were in _class_ you can’t just take your shirt off,” she stated the obvious.

“Just wait,” Cady said with a smile and pulled her hand away from Janis’ grip. She finished unbuttoning her flannel to reveal a white t-shirt with the word _SPACE DYKE_ painted on in pink loopy letters.

Janis wasn’t quite sure how to react, so she just let out a laugh and shook her head. For once, she was at a loss of words.

“Caddie-- this-- you-- Cady what--” she stammered.

“What are you doing?” Janis asked with a nervous chuckle once she was able to somewhat collect herself.

Cady smiled and took Janis’ hand in her own. “I’m proud to be with you, Janis, and if someone is going to say something to you, they can say it to me too,” she said proudly.

Janis bit her lip and shook her head. “No… Caddie, I can’t let you do this to yourself. I can take their crap, you shouldn’t have to.”

Cady sighed. “I know you can, but you shouldn’t have to. If they’re gonna call you a space dyke they better know you’re _my_ space dyke, and

“You’re-- you are insane,” Janis laughed, but the sparkle in her eyes and the smile that spread across her lips showed she appreciated Cady’s gesture more than she could put into words.

Cady grinned and shrugged. “Do you like it?”

“You’re such a nerd,” Janis said, hoping her humor would distract from how much the small gesture meant to her. Sure, all it was was a t-shirt with some paint on it. But to her, it meant she had someone by her side even if the entire school was against her. And that meant so much to her.

“But yes, I love it,” Janis added as she leaned in to kiss Cady, for once not caring who was watching.

Cady spent the rest of the day practically glued to Janis. She proudly showed off her t-shirt to anyone who would look in her direction. She flooded her Instagram and Snapchat stories with pictures of her and Janis throughout the day, always making sure to add captions about how amazing Janis was.

Janis didn’t even bother to pretend like she was embarrassed by her girlfriend's antics. She just smiled and watched her proudly when she told off bullies in the halls or told her to pose for yet _another_ picture.

For the first time, it was starting to feel like she could just let the comments and glares roll off her back like they used to. Because she knew, as long as she had Cady by her side, for now at least, she would be able to ignore the bitches in the hallway who tried to trip her and called her slurs. She had someone fighting by her side, and that was enough to let her know she’d get through it.

**Author's Note:**

> This was a lot of fun to write, even if it isn't very good. I hope you guys liked it though, and I might start writing more Janis/Cady one-shots in the future.  
> Comments and feedback is greatly appreciated :)


End file.
